INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (November 14, 2015) – Indianapolis Division of Homeland Security Chief Gary Coons released a statement Saturday in regards to the security of the Circle City following the attacks in Paris.

“We started preparing for this style of attack following the tragic events of Columbine. However, a stronger focus was made on coordination, intelligence sharing and resource allocation after the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India.

In addition to the Department’s training efforts, DHS and FBI field personnel – on a regular basis – provide briefings and workshops to help all of us prepare for, protect against, and respond to coordinated terrorist attacks against multiple targets.

For example, DHS worked closely with the NCTC and FBI to present the Joint Counterterrorism Awareness Workshop Series (JCTAWS). Indianapolis was selected in 2010 to host one of the first 10 workshops held across the country. The JCTAWS workshop brought Federal, State, and local participants from across law enforcement, fire, EMS and other emergency response and private sector communities together for a several month planning, calibrating, and resource identifying program culminating with a full day workshop and gap analysis.

We also have participated in multiple active shooter exercises with our private sector partners to include malls, schools, large companies and organizations to prepare for such scenarios as seen in Paris Friday evening.

We continue to monitor the situation and at this time we have no indication of any security threat to our city or state.”